Apple Spice
by notsoevilqueen
Summary: Swan Queen AU Based on the movie The Proposal. Regina Mills is the Marketing Director at Gold's Gallery. Emma is her assistant. When Regina has her visa application rejected, the next best thing she can think of is to marry Emma. They now have to deal with visiting Emma's family for the weekend, and hoping not to get caught by the government.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my first time writing a Swan Queen fan fiction so…yeah. I don't own **_**Once Upon a Time**_** or **_**The Proposal**_**, but I am using them for inspiration. **

Emma Swan was seriously questioning what she had done in her life to deserve such a horrible morning. First she had slept through her alarm, which led her to leave her apartment in such a hurry that she left her messenger bag with all of her research at home. Her day got better when Jane, one of the morning Starbucks baristas, had her order prepared for her by the time she walked through the coffee shops doors. However, that little shred of hope she still had disappeared when just as she walked into the Gold Art Gallery she crashed into a box holding the new gallery artwork, causing her to spill her bosses apple spice all over her white blouse.

"Smooth Emma. Way to go." Emma thought to herself.

After Emma discarded the empty coffee cup, she checked the time on her watch and saw that it was 8:28. Realizing that she had exactly two minutes before her boss walked into the building, she needed a quick solution to her current wet blouse situation. She remembered that she still had a sweater from those long December nights under her desk, and quickly made her way to her cubicle while guarding the one coffee cup that hadn't been destroyed in her morning accident with her life. Emma really wished that she had switched out the sweater she had under her desk as she pulled it over her head and noticed there was a large Christmas tree sown into the front of it. It wasn't exactly July appropriate clothing. As checking over her appearance on the computer camera, the office-wide messaging system lit up.

"The witch has entered the kingdom!"

"Shit" Emma said to herself. She quickly made her way to the door that had the name Regina Mills engraved into in, with the words Marketing Director engraved under it. She watched, as the whole office seemed to transform into work mode, just because of the presence of the brunette walking down the hallway. Emma swiftly entered the room, and made sure everything was in order before her boss entered.

Regina walked into her office to see her assistant organizing a stack of art magazines that were placed on the coffee table on the left side of her office. Noting that her assistant still hadn't noticed her arrival, Regina cleared her throat louder than necessary, causing Emma to quickly jump at the presence of the other person in the room.

"Good Morning boss." Emma said, grabbing the coffee cup she had left on the coffee table and handed it to Regina. "You have a conference call in 20 minutes"

"The one about the rest of the Fall exhibit that is coming in next week? Yes, I know." Regina responded, grabbing the coffee cup, and walking around her desk to her chair.

"And there's also a staff meeting at 10." Emma said as she moved forward slightly to be closer to Regina's desk. "Also, immigration called again saying that this was the last warni-"

Regina cut Emma off " Can you reschedule the call for tomorrow, move up the meeting to 9, and call my lawyer."

Emma took in a deep breath and nodded dutifully, having it been the third time this week that she had rescheduled the conference call. As she made her way out of the room and back to her cubicle to call the artists.

Regina took a sip from her apple spice, and noticed that there was a name and number written on the exterior of the cup with the two words "call me" written under it.

"Who is Jane" Regina asked Emma before she was completely out of the room "And why does she want me to call her?" emphasizing the last two words, while turning the cup so that Emma could see what was written on the side of the cup.

Emma slowly walked backwards into the room trying to figure out how to explain the situation to her boss. Jane had always been a flirt and despite the fact that Emma had told her repeatedly that she wasn't interested, Jane was persistent. However, Emma had to admit that Jane's persistence was helpful on mornings like the one she had just had.

"Well…That was originally my cup." Emma admitted.

"And why exactly am I drinking your drink?" Regina responded.

"Because your drink spilled" Emma replied.

Regina took another sip from the cup. "Am I expected to believe that you also drink an apple spice every morning? Just like me?" Regina questioned, looking at Emma and raising an eyebrow.

Emma just nodded in agreement, before the phone started to ring in Regina's office.

"Well go on" Regina said as she motioned for Emma to pick up the phone.

"Good morning. Mills' office….Yes, Hello Mr. Glass" Emma answered. At hearing the name of one of her coworkers, Regina motioned at Emma to hang up. "Apparently we're going to your office right now…yeah…bye." Emma hung up. "Why are we going to Sidney's office?" Emma questioned.

Regina didn't respond, but instead stood up from her desk and made her way towards Emma. Looking at Emma's appearance Regina let out a questioning glance "I think you order the same drink as me just in case your drink spills." Regina leaned in to whisper the next part. "Which if you think about it, it's kind of pathetic." Regina regained her posture and walked out of her office and into the hallway, motioning at Emma to follow her.

It took a while for Emma to compose herself. She had always found her boss beautiful, and sure, she had had a dream or two about her, but she was pretty sure that she didn't have a chance with Regina. Not only was Regina out of Emma's league, but Regina was also her boss, which complicated things further.

Regina popped her head back into her office "Are you coming or not?" Emma quickly grabbed her planner off the desk and followed Regina down the hallway to Sidney's office.

Regina entered Sidney's office without knocking. "Please, come in" Sidney said sarcastically while looking up from the open art catalog on his desk. Regina sat down on one arm of a chair in front of Sidney's desk.

"Sidney, we're letting you go" Regina said nonchalantly and took a sip from her, Emma's, drink.

Sidney slowly closed the magazine on his desk. "What?"

"I've asked you many times to get Katheryn Nolan's work into this exhibit, and you didn't do it" Regina responded.

"I told you" Sidney defended "She is too famous for our gallery. It's impossible to get her to agree."

"That's funny, because I was just talking to her assistant, and her photographs are appearing in our spring gallery." Regina replied. "It's funny though, because she said there was no contact to their office by a Sidney Glass. You didn't even contact them! So, you're fired."

Sidney was frozen in shock.

"I'm going to give you two weeks to get all your things, and find another job. But after that, you are gone." Regina stood up, and made her way out of Sidney's office with Emma in tow. Once they were out of the office Regina asked, "what's he doing right now?"

"He's pacing around…wait, no now he's coming out to the hallway. He looks like he wants to hunt you down." Emma responded.

"Don't do it Sidney. Don't do it." Regina said quietly, but it was too late.

"You wicked witch! Who do you think you are! You can't fire me!" Sidney yelled accenting every word.

Regina slowly turned around smiling. "Sidney stop." She said softly

Sidney continued, "What do you think this is? Some land that you control and can rule over? You don't have any power here? And you have no one! You are going to be alone forever!"

"Sidney, Sidney, Sidney" Regina said teasingly "Do you think this will change anything? Increase your status? You. Are. Fired. If you say another word, I will have you out of here with an armed escort. You may think I have no power, but the truth is, I have it all" Regina said before turning around and continuing towards her office.

As Regina settled back behind her desk Emma asked "Is there anything else I need to know then?"

Regina turned her chair around to face away from Emma and face her computer, while putting on her glasses. "I'm going to need you to stay this weekend to help organize how we're going to set up the Fall gallery."

"This weekend?" Emma responded too quickly.

"Yes." Regina said and looked over her shoulder at Emma, while pulling her glasses down a bit "Is that a problem?"

"No it's just my Grandma's 90th birthday but that doesn't matter I guess" Emma stated, trailing off at the end when she realized that Regina was no longer paying any attention to her. "If you need me I'll be at my cubicle" Emma told Regina but was just given a slight had gesture as acknowledgement.

Emma knocked on Regina's door before proceeding into her office. "Mr. Gold wants to see you in his office."

Regina rolled her eyes and let out a sigh "You know the drill. If I'm not out in 10 minutes go in and say I have an important meeting with the investors. Got it." Emma nodded.

Gold's secretary, Belle, welcomed Regina as she walked into Gold's office but Regina failed to acknowledge her presence. Instead she walked straight into his office.

"Hello there," Regina stated far more enthusiastic than any of her other tones that day, "So what's this meeting about."

"Regina, do you remember how I told you that you needed a visa to work here" Regina nodded. "And how I told you to get in contact with immigrations" Regina nodded again. "Well" Gold asked.

"I'm getting around to contacting them" Regina said.

"Well now immigrations contacting us and is saying that your visa application has been denied on the grounds of lack of contact." Gold said.

"What!" Regina yelled.

"Yes it seems that they have been trying to contact you for the past few weeks but you haven't contacted them. It seems that you are being…deported." Gold said skeptically.

"I'm from Canada. We're pretty much the same country!" Regina responded.

"While you reapply for your visa we will be giving your position to Sidney Glass" Gold said.

"Sidney! Do you mean the man I just fired?" Regina exclaimed. She was pretty sure this was a nightmare. She just needed someone to pinch her and wake her up. Just as she was standing in disbelief, Emma knocked on the door and walked in.

"Sorry to walk in on this meeting, but Regina, you have an important meeting with the investors." Emma said quietly.

All of the sudden it was as if a light bulb went off in Regina's head as she turned to look at Emma. She wasn't sure if the plan would work but it was worth a shot. Regina began to motion at Emma to come closer to her, but Emma just looked at her with a confused look. Regina walked up to Emma, awkwardly grabbing her hand and dragging Emma to the center of the room. The second their hands touched, both women felt a spark, or something they couldn't explain.

Now Emma was beginning to think that this was a dream. She was now in fact, holding the hand of her biggest crush. Emma wasn't conscious of what was happening around her. That was until she heard Regina say those six words:

Emma and I are getting married.


	2. Chapter 2

_**CORRECTION**_**: In the first chapter I realized I made a really stupid mistake and had Graham be Regina's co-worker. I meant to make him Sidney. I corrected it now, so if you read the fan-fiction later on in the day then you're good. Sorry about the mistake. **

"_Emma and I are getting married."_

Emma wasn't sure she heard what Regina said correctly. "Wha-Who-Who's getting married?"

Regina let out a small forced chuckle, while removing her hand from removing her left hand from Emma's. "No need to be so secretive anymore, dear" Regina responded to Emma while managing to sneak her newly free hand around Emma's body to lie on her waist, and bring her in for a very unexpected side hug.

Gold interlocked his hands in front of him and looked at the supposed couple. "Isn't she your secretary Regina?" Gold questioned with a raised an eyebrow at the brunette.

"Assistant" Emma responded quickly stepping forward defending her position, and inadvertently out of Regina's hug. She felt so cliché thinking about how she felt a little colder after stepping out of Regina's embrace.

"Well you see," Regina paused, trying to come up with some sort of explanation to ease Gold's skepticism. "Emma and I are two people who weren't expecting a happily ever after. We weren't supposed to fall in love, but we did." Regina avoided looking in Emma's direction throughout her small speech, but she could feel the blonde's eyes staring at her with disbelief. "And come on Gold. This wouldn't be the first time that one of us slept with one of our coworkers." Regina implied, glancing over her shoulder at where Belle was sitting at her desk past the glass walls of Gold's office.

"Yes, well" Gold cleared his throat "Just make sure to make it legal" he finished looking back down at the letter on his desk, serving as a sign for both Regina and Emma to leave the office.

* * *

"Why are we getting married?" Emma exclaimed as both women made it back to Regina's office after fighting off a few stares and winks from their coworkers.

"I was going to be deported back to Canada" Regina said, surprisingly calmly. Hearing Regina's response, Emma rolled her head back and closed her eyes.

"I told you that you needed to call immigrations" responded, clearly annoyed at Regina but Regina didn't seem to notice the blonde's frustration as she made her way to her desk chair. "But do you ever listen to me? No," Emma said to herself.

"What was that?" Regina questioned.

"Nothing," Emma responded quickly, although the look that the brunette was giving here clearly reflected that she had heard what she had said.

"So we'll have to go to immigrations today, and apply for the fiancé visa. We'll go at lunch" Regina stated without giving Emma a choice. At this point Emma was half expecting Aston Kutcher to pop out from the closet with a camera man and yell "You've just been Punk'd!" However, if this was real, Emma had one question that had been tugging at the back of her head.

"Can I ask you something" Emma asked.

"Make it quick. We don't have all the time in the world" Regina responded

"Do you even like women?" Emma questioned.

"While many of my previous suitors may have been men there was the occasional woman. I've always been open when it comes to my relationships" Regina finished of with a wink. Emma wasn't sure if she was reading into it too much or not, but she was almost positive that her strict, witch-like boss, was flirting with her. Maybe she was still stuck in a dream Emma thought to herself, and proceeded to pinch herself subtly.

"Ow!" Emma exclaimed. Nope, definitely not a dream Emma said to herself.

"Is there anything else you need Ms. Swan?" Regina said noticing Emma was still standing in the same position she was in when they walked into the room, "Because if there aren't any more questions I can answer for you, the door is right behind you and there is still work to be done."

Emma back walked out of the room slowly before crashing into the doorframe. Emma was almost sure she heard a small chuckle escape Regina's lips as she quickly escaped out of the office.

* * *

"You heard what the investigator said!" Emma yelled at Regina outside of the immigrations building, "I could be facing a lifetime sentence for you, all because of a lie!"

"Keep your voice down Ms. Swan" Regina said threateningly at Emma who looked like she had smoke coming out of her ears. "No one will ever find out. We'll have a quick wedding followed by a couple of months where we live together, followed by a quick divorce due to conflict of interest. Celebrities have done worse than that before."

"I can't believe I'm doing this" Emma said exasperated, not sure if she was saying it to herself, or if she wanted Regina to hear it as well. "And now our lie has both of us going back to my parents for the weekend. I can't believe this." Emma tossed her head back and sighed while throwing her hands up in the air "What did I do to deserve this?"

"Weren't you the one who needed to go back home for your Grandma's birthday?" Regina questioned, "Now you'll just take me along, and I'll stay at a hotel."

Emma sighed again. "Fine, but we tell my parents when I want to tell them."

"That's fine with me, dear" Regina responded as she began to walk down to the sidewalk and began to flag down a taxi. She motioned for Emma to follow her. "Where exactly is Storybrooke anyways?" Regina was almost positive she had never heard of a town or city named Storybrooke before, and if she was going to have to spend three nights there she might as well know where in the world she was going."

"It's a small town on the coast of Maine. It's one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone, so trust me, no matter how much you try to hide yourself, your presence will be noted." Emma said as she slid into the yellow cab after Regina.

"And how exactly are we going to get there?" Regina was positive that if it were a small town transpiration would be limited, "Because if you think that I'm going to get on a public bus in an unknown city and state then you are very mistaken."

"No worries your majesty" Emma responded sarcastically "There are no buses that go into Storybrooke, but I have transportation figured out. I'll purchase your plane ticket once we get back to the office, and you just worry about packing."

Regina just nodded and then turned her head to look out the window at the city's buildings.

* * *

Regina now found herself in a very different type of yellow car, and a very different landscape from that of New York.

"Ms. Swan, I am positive that we pay you enough for you to have a more decent form of transportation." Regina said in reference to the worn out yellow Volkswagen beetle that she was currently sitting in. Regina was pretty sure that if she were to push her feet a little to hard onto the floor of the car, she would be able to make a hole in the cars frame. However, Regina could see how the car fit into Emma's personality so well. Over the years, through all of the late nights at work, Regina was able to observe the Blonde's behavior and personality. Regina had begun to notice that even though Emma received a hefty salary, especially for her position in an art gallery, she never seemed to splurge on personal items. Regina thought that made Emma humble, and was one of the reasons she really liked even though she would never admit it. She blamed all of the late nights; where she saw a more relaxed and casual Emma who wasn't influenced by the harshness of the city emerge, as the source of Regina's fondness for the blonde as well. Emma wasn't like any of the assistants Regina had had in the past. Emma cared. No matter how mistreated and overworked she was, she still showed up to work every day with a smile on her face.

Regina snapped back to the present when Emma pointed out a sign hidden amongst the trees that said Welcome to Storybrooke in big white bold letters. "We're almost there." Emma said pointing out the obvious.

"I can see that." Regina said still looking out the window of the car, noticing a small city forming in front of her. "I guess there's no going back now?" She said trying to lighten the mood in the car.

"I guess not." Emma stated flatly. It wasn't that Emma wasn't happy about coming home as much as it was the company that she brought along with her. Her family had grown to somewhat despise the strict boss because of the hours that were established at the workplace. Emma also hadn't exactly told her parents about her guest, even though she had told Regina that she had. With the plane tickets and the fiancé visa to worry about, it had slipped her mind that she needed to inform her parents about Regina's arrival. Emma's palms started to get sweaty as she tightened her grip on her cars old steering. "I don't need to do this" Emma thought to herself "I can turn the car around and go home."

But Emma's thoughts were cut off when she drove onto Main Street and the first thing she saw was a huge white banner that said "Welcome Home, Emma" in bold black letters hanging off of the wall at Granny's dinner. Not only that, but Emma also noticed that most of the population of the small town was either inside or outside of the diner waiting for her arrival, with her parents waving at the car from the sidewalk.

"Shit" Emma exclaimed as she saw the sign.

"I'm not one for vulgarity, but I couldn't agree more Ms. Swan." Regina agreed.


End file.
